Web Guy | Movie Lover | All Round Geek

In 2006 after 10 seasons on TV Stargate SG-1 came to an end with the 214th episode “Unending” (ironic but the title made sense within the story itself as a theme as well as for the final shot, more on that later)

For me the Stargate franchise is up there amongst not only my favourite Sci-fi shows joining company including Farscape (which shares actors Ben Browder & Claudia Black) and only surpassed (arguably) by the various Star Trek series.

The Ark of Truth, a Direct to DVD feature movie, picks up where season 10 left off with SG-1 looking for a way to defeat the forces of the Ori.

The Ori, an advanced race of humans from another Galaxy, were once part of a culture shared by another group who became known as the Alterans (the people who along with the Stargates built the Lost City of Atlantis) but had a difference of opinion on whether Science or Religion was the way of the future. After some time the Ori along with their followers tried to destroy the Alterans who decided to leave for another Galaxy (the Milky Way) and a fresh start.

Millions of years ago both of these groups learned how to “Ascend” to a higher plane of existence. The Alterans who became known as the Ancients believed in not interfering with the mortal plane while the Ori demanded that the unascended people of their Galaxy worship them like gods (after all as an Ascended Being they do poses some rather godlike abilities). This worship was compulsory and the sole punishment for non believers is to be put to death and spend “eternity in fiery torment” (oh the method of execution being by fire) which we later learn helps to fuel their power base giving them an advantage over the Ascended Ancients who continued to be their enemy.

The mission was simple, take the Earth ship Odyssey to the Ori Galaxy via a space based Supergate, find the Ark and use it to dissolve the Ori’s fanatical power base of followers.

Without overly spoiling the film the mission is a success even with an added complication from the Replicators (a metal spider like foe who consume a ships materials to build more of themselves who were previously defeated in Season 8) thanks to the IOA (the International Oversight Committee who part fund the Stargate Program) which were meant to be used as a way to destroy the Ori fleet but once loose take over the Odyssey .

All in all its a rather satisfying end to the previous 2 seasons involving the Ori and feels like a good feature length or 2 part episode. While this is sometimes considered a bad thing for big screen films such as Star Trek Insurrection (generally considered not to be a fan favourite) some of the best episodes of scifi have been 2 parters like the season 3 finale/season 4 opening episode of Star Trek The Next Generation “The Best of Both Worlds”.

The ending felt rather familiar, being the team ready to undertake a new mission on the unexplored planet of “P3K-546”.

I say familiar because this is the way the finale episode ended though this time they don’t have an over reaching enemy to fight.

The last line of the film was by Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell to start their next adventure “Walter, hit it!”